Vietnam War
Terms
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- How Chi Minh
- leader of the Viet Minh and North Vietnam(D.R.V.)a nationalist/communist
- Viet Minh
- North Vietnamese Political Party which was made up of peasants, urban workers, intellectuals, and business people. Also fighters were called NVRA (North Vietnamese Regular Army)
- NVRA
- North Vietnamese Regular Army
- Viet Cong
- The V.C. or Charlie which was a Southern Communist insurgents. The Guerilla fighters who supported the Northern cause. NLF were National Liberation Front (a political group n North supporting Viet Cong)
- Geneva Conference
- April 1954-an international conference dealing with issues of Korea and Vietnam. The Conference decided to divide Vietnam in half at the the 17th Parallel and called for the elections in 1956 which never occur.
- Ngo Dinh Diem
- 2nd Ruler of Southern Vietnamese. He is disliked by Vietnamese for being too Western (meaning too American). He is oppressive, Catholic, and does not allow local customs or government. Introduces 'Strategic Hamlet' program which forceable relocated peasants from ancestral land to small villages, very unpopular. It also intended to isolate them from communist influence. Diem was seen as being oppressive and ignorant of local customs and religion. Diem is executed in 1963 with support of the U.S.
- 'Strategic Hamlet'
- It forceable relocated peasants from ancestral land to small villages, very unpopular. It also intended to isolate them from communist influence.
- ARVN
- Army of Republic of Vietnam
- Nguyen Cao Ky
- 3rd ruler of Southern Vietnamese. He too is seen as Western to the Vietnamese.
- Silent Majority
- were the group of individuals made up of republicans, older Americans who were in the middle/upper class who felt their way of life was being threatened by anti-war protesters and privileged Hippies. They were angry that young men were doing their duty for their country and fighting while others were not.
- Boat People
- They were Cambodians and Laotians refugees who fled the turmoil in their country. The hardships they were through were storms at sea, attacks by pirates, cold, sickness, death. The difficulties in United States were learning a new language/new customs, faced racial discrimination by Americans who saw them as an economic threat. For Amerasians, they were separated by families.
- Vietnamization
- The US is going to turn the war over to the ARVN-Army of Republic of (south) Vietnam but still supply the ARVN
- Domino Theory
- The fear that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to the Communists, the other would also fall. A Communist takeover of Vietnam, because of its geographic location, posed a threat to Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Thailand.
- Dien Bien Phu
- Ho Chi Minh a Communists and the leader of the League for the Independence Vietnam, aroused his people's feelings of nationalism against French control. The French opposed the Vietminh by forming the Republic of Vietnam, headed by the emperor Bao Dai. War between these opposing forces continued until May 1954, when the Vietminh defeated the French after a long siege at a fortress in Dien Bien Phu
- South Vietnam
- Ngo Dinh Diem, a former Vietnamese official who had been living in exile in the United States, became president of anti-Communist South Vietnam, with it's capital in Saigon. Geneva agreements called for elections to be held in 1956 to unify the country. South Vietnam refused to support this part of the agreement, claiming that the Communists would not hold fair elections. As a result, Vietnam remained divide.
- North Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh became president of the new Communist-dominated North Vietnam, with it's capital in Hanoi
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
- 1964 Congressional resolution authorizing President Johnson to take military action in Vietnam.
- Escalation of Vietnam
- In 1954 through 1952, Truman supported French efforts to recolonize Vietnam. In 1952 through 1960, Eisenhower aided to French reaches 80% of their war costs. In 1954 French defeated. US gives aid and send advisors to South Vietnam to fight off Northern aggression. In 1960 through 1963 JFK gives lots of money to South Vietnam. Sends lots of advisors. Supports/okay's assassination of Diem-"Nation Building", US takes responsibility for building a democratic nation. In 1963 through 1968, Lyndon B Johnson - the 'Gulf of Tonkin' incident gives LBJ a reason to start war "blank check". In 1965, first marines into Vietnam.
- Tet Offensive Impact
- Reaction from the public was to have protests in the streets of the USA. One slogan was "Hell no we won't go" another "Hey, Hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today"
- Operation Rolling Thunder
- was a frequently interrupted bombing campaign that began on 24 February 1965 and lasted until the end of October 1968. During this period, U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft engaged in a bombing campaign designed to force Ho Chi Minh to abandon his ambition to take over South Vietnam. The restless bombing campaign continued for three years. Although the bombing produced heavy damage, it failed to stop the Viet Cong. The enemy dug thousands of miles of tunnels through which troops and supplies moved south from North Vietnam. The relentless bombing campaign that continued for almost three years. Although the bombing produced heavy damage, it failed to stop the Viet Cong. The enemy dug thousands of miles of tunnels through which troops and supplies moved south from North Vietnam.
- Search and Destroy mission
- The idea was to insert ground forces into hostile territory, search out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw immediately afterwards. A strategy that was the result of a new weapon, the helicopter; which resulted into a new form of warfare, the fielding of air cavalry[1] a strategy to be ideally suited for counter-guerrilla / jungle warfare. The complementary conventional strategy, which entailed attacking and conquering an enemy position, then fortifying and holding it indefinitely, was known as Clear and Hold or Clear and Secure. In theory, since the traditional methods of "taking ground" could not be used in this war, a war of attrition would be used; eliminating the enemy by the use of "searching" for them, then "destroying" them, and the "body count" would be the measuring tool to determine the accountability of the strategy of "search and destroy." The enemy dug thousands of miles of tunnels through which troops and supplies moved south from North Vietnam. United States forces launched search and destroy missions, but their victories failed to have a significant effect on the course of the war. Nothing seemed to diminish the enemy’s willingness or ability to continue fighting. When the Viet Cong suffered heavy losses, North Vietnam sent new troops.
- Agent Orange
- United States forced used chemical weapons against the Vietnamese. Pilots dropped an herbicide __ on dense jungle landscapes. By killing the leaves and thick undergrowth, the herbicide exposed Viet Cong hiding places. It had also killed crops. Later it was discovered that __ caused health problems in livestock and in humans, including Vietnamese civilians and American soldiers
- Hawks
- Nickname for supporters of the Vietnam War
- Doves
- Those who opposed the Vietnam War
- Tet Offense
- 1968 attack by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces throughout South Vietnam. It demonstrated that the Viet Cong could launch a massive attack on targets throughout South Vietnam. Many people at home began to express reservations about American involvement in Vietnam. Many Americans were discouraged, believing that the the United Stated troops had not been allowed to- win the war. A majority of Americans supported a policy tougher than the one pursued by the administration. President Johnson, caught in the middle, saw his popular plunge.
- Napalm
- A destructive chemical used in Vietnam. When dropped from airplanes, this jellylike substance splattered and burned uncontrollably. It also stuck to people's bodies and seared their flesh.
- Ho Chi Minh Trail
- A supply route used to carry troops and supplies from North Vietnam to South Vietnam.
- Peace with honor
- Nixon wins in November 1968 with a secret promise to end the war in Vietnam with honor.
- General William Westmoreland
- Two weeks after the Pleiku attack, ___, the commander of United States forces in Vietnam, requested more soldiers. He asked Johnson for two battalions of marines to protect the American airfield at Da Nang. Johnson heeded the request, beginning a rapid buildup of American combat troops. At the start of 1965, some 25,000 American soldiers were stationed in Vietnam. By the end of the year, the number had risen to 184,000
- Robert McNamara
- One of the American officials who helped create the Kennedy administration's Vietnam policy was ___, President Kennedy's Secretary of Defense. A Republican with a strong business background, he became one of Kennedy's closet advisors on Vietnam. Later he helped shape the policies that drew the United States deeper into the war. As Secretary of Defense, he applied his business knowledge, managing to cut costs while modernizing the armed forces. He turned the Pentagon's thinking away from reliance on the threat of nuclear bombs toward the development of a "flexible response" to military crises. He began to focus his attention on how to handle the conflict in Vietnam. Under Lyndon Johnson, he pushed for direct American involvement in the war. In 1963, he questioned whether a complete withdrawal was not the better alternative.